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Title: City at World's End (del Rey Book) by Edmond Hamilton ISBN: 0-345-30987-1 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $2.75

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Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (3 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: An original kind of civilization shock
Comment: This book's strong opening chapter confronts scientists with the unthinkable: a superatomic bomb has fallen on Middletown, a small American city hiding a secret antiatomic laboratory, servering it from its surroundings; the sun is now red and drawn out, the moon is unrecognizable, the temperature is low. Various hypotheses are considered to explain all of this, and the most unlikely might well be the one closest to the truth. After the initial event has occurred, transmission of knowledge proceeds in a myriad of interesting ways: between scientific and non-scientific Middletownians at first, but then between strangers from the future - some apparently human, some not - and scientific Middletownians (who take on the role of their non-scientific peers because of their relative ignorance). Even though they generally remain on the good side, the 20th century humans' role is decently complex and shows a nuanced way of approaching the space opera subgenre of science-fiction: they frequently reverse roles with 'the other' and even become an historical curiosity under the eye of an historian from the future. This novel's structure is careful, every step being taken with a studied internal cohesion and sense of pace. Its position on science remains ultimately optimistic, but it does acknowledge some of the dangers it could cause and offers an original kind of civilization shock.

Rating: 3
Summary: Solid SF tale.
Comment: A solid science fiction effort. Certainly no classic, but generally well written and interesting. The story unfolds nicely as the residents of a small city try to find out why the world around them has changed so much (and why they are still alive!) after a nuclear bomb hits their town. City at World's End is 1950's science fiction and not for all taste. It will probably be enjoyed most by those who enjoy Ray Bradbury or the original Star Trek TV series.

Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting pulp sci fi novel
Comment: With a bizarre premise, this novel explores a possible future of mankind and how people from today (1957) would handle the situation.